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Bilingual Education in Texas

By ArelyGR

  • English Only instruction

    Indigenous Spanish speakers in Texas endured mandated English Only instruction, and Mexican Americans in Texas were placed in segregated schools until segregation was ruled illegal. This lasted until 1950.

  • Escuelitas

    Barrio schools (escuelitas) were found mainly in South Texas, and offered home-based reading and writing instruction in Spanish for preschoolers. They operated as late as 1965.

  • First 100 (English) Words

    The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) established the "First 100 (English) Words" program for Spanish-speaking preschoolers.

  • Little School of the 400

    LULAC in cooperation with the American G.I. Forum, organized the community-based "Little School of the 400." These schools taught basic English vocabulary considered essential for success in the formal school setting.

  • Summer preschool programs

    The Texas Education Agency launched "Little Schools of the 400" summer preschool programs.

  • Bilingual schooling

    During the 60's:
    - The civil-rights movement of the Johnson administration caused a major change in the perception of ethnic minorities. - Institutionally segregated schooling ended.- Equal educational opportunities for linguistically and culturally atypical learners became a desirable goal. - Bilingual schooling emerged as an alternative approach.

  • Texas and ESL programs

    • "Little Schools of the 400" programs had enrolled some 20,000 students in 173 school districts. - Programs in ESL also promoted English skills among Mexican-American students with limited English proficiency. - Texas had the highest concentration of Mexican-American students enrolled in elementary and secondary ESL programs in the Southwestern states. - Superintendent Harold Brantley of the Laredo United Consolidated School District launched the first bilingual program in Texas.

  • Disadvantaged students

    The federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and other legislation sparked a flurry of compensatory measures for "disadvantaged" students.

  • TEA accreditation standard

    The Texas Education Agency developed an accreditation standard that allowed school districts offer non-English-speaking children an instructional program using two languages.

  • Sixty-first Texas Legislature

    • With support from Representative Carlos Truan and Senator Joe Bernal, the Sixty-first Texas Legislature legalized this permissive standard and permitted bilingual instruction when such instruction was educationally advantageous to pupils. - Texas had sixteen school districts with bilingual programs serving 10,003 students.

  • Equal educational opportunity

    OCR director J. Stanley Pottinger issued a memorandum stipulating that those school districts with more than 5 percent national-origin minority children were obligated under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to provide equal educational opportunity for language-minority students.

  • United States vs. State of Texas

    • Representative Truan presented a bill in the legislature for stronger bilingual programs, but was unable to gather support because the Sharpstown Stock-Fraud Scandal dominated the proceedings. - United States vs. State of Texas: (Federal Court Order) Civil Action 5281 eliminated discrimination on grounds of race, color, or national origin in public and charter schools in Texas.

  • The United States Commission on Civil Rights

    The United States Commission on Civil Rights documented the effects of separate and unequal education from 1971 to 1974.

  • TABE

    The Texas Association for Bilingual Education (TABE) was established in San Antonio as an advocacy group for the rights of language minority children, particularly Spanish-speaking students.

  • Bilingual Education and Training Act

    Governor Dolph Briscoe signed into law the Bilingual Education and Training Act.

  • Lau v. Nichols

    The Lau v. Nichols decision of the United States Supreme Court assured the survival of the bilingual program.

  • United States v. Texas and Lau v. Nichols

    • United States v. Texas, filed by the G.I. Forum and LULAC, reinforced legal support for bilingual education. It criticized state efforts to address the needs of children. Judge Justice ordered the TEA to initiate additional bilingual instruction to satisfy "their affirmative obligation" and guarantee linguistically deprived children an equal educational opportunity. The decisions in United States v. Texas and Lau v. Nichols were prime catalysts for the expansion of bilingual and ESL programs

  • Plyler vs. Doe

    Plyler vs. Doe: (Decision) The Texas statute that denied undocumented children a public-school education violated the 14th Amendment 's equal protection clause.

  • No Child Left Behind Act

    No Child Left Behind Act: All English language learners will be tested annually to measure how well they are learning English, so their parents will know they are progressing. States and schools will be held accountable for results.